


The Sun Never Set On Hammerhead (at the End Of The Road)

by Houseplant



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Depression, F/M, If the Astrals weren't dicks he'd pray that the same fate not befall him with Cindy, Ignores Episode Ignis Verse 2, Ignores The Royal Edition, Post Ten Years Of Darkness, Prompto was in love with Noctis and didn't realise til it was too late
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-05-03 09:35:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14566170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Houseplant/pseuds/Houseplant
Summary: With Noctis gone, the string holding their friendship together frays, and so the bros part ways. Ignis has duties he promised to attend to, and Gladio has family to find. But Prompto... Prompto has nothing. His house was never a home, and the home he thought he'd found unraveled.And so, he wanders. Eos is a strange place needing repairs, and his feet (and broken heart) bring him back to the beginning. To the garage where it all began, and to the woman who may not fix his heart, but knows her way around a combustion engine well enough.Perhaps proximity, and time, will fix it all. And if not, he'll slay some daemons and learn something along the way.





	1. Don't Get Ahead of Yourself

The dawn had risen, and the remaining three had parted ways. As the days grew on the threads tying them together had thinned and frayed, til distance and memory snapped them.

 

Gladio went back into the cities to help any stragglers from the days where the sun didn’t shine, Ignis shortly behind them. These days, Prompto couldn’t tell you what they were doing. Mobile towers had gone dead years ago.

 

Prompto headed back to Hammerhead, and were he of a more literary bent he might have said for the symbolism of it, to end where their journey had began. He was no such scholar, however, and truly the urge to help and see a certain mechanic once more guided his feet.

 

(His heart was somewhere else, stabbed through the back and laid to rest as was worthy of him.)

 

There was dust on his boots and dirt on his face when the familiar sign of the garage came into sight.

 

The diner bell chimed when Prompto walked in, and only a few hunters even bothered to look up as he entered. It felt like something from an old movie as he walked to the counter, elbows resting on the counter and forcing a smile that didn’t quite negate the exhaustion in his eyes. “Hey, Takka. Anything good lately?”

 

There weren’t even old threads of a life to pick up now. Not now that everything was gone; the sun shining once more was little warmth without the stars in the night sky to balance it out.

 

Takka had no leads for him, and the rations were scarce. He nursed a watered down beverage that might have been coffee or motor oil in a past life.

 

It was hours before Prompto even thought about seeking out the Goddess of Hammerhead. His world had come so unraveled that he could hardly fathom thinking about pulling himself up by the frayed fishing line that was an old crush.

 

“Heyya, Sunshine. Aren’t ya a sight for sore eyes,” the peppy blonde had lost none of her personality over the decade, still managed a grease-streaked smile, rolling out from under a car that had definitely seen better days—hadn’t they all, though?

 

Prompto wished he could return the enthusiasm; he didn’t think he had stopped squinting since the sun had once more risen above the sky. “Yeah it’s.. . Good to see you, Cindy.” He tried to force the vigor of a life long passed into his voice, but it sounded flat even to his own ears.

 

The mechanic frowned, catching the hesitation in his voice. Ten years changes a man, and Cindy had seen her fair share of beleaguered hunters pass through since Hammerhead became an outpost for the weary. Wiping the back of her hand across her face, desert sweat and motor oil leaving a near iridescent band of gray across her nose, she sized up the other blonde.

 

“You look like you could use a drink, hand me that there wrench, pull your weight, and I might got somethin' for ya.”

 

It didn't take more than a second for Prompto to understand what Cindy was doing, but he forced his smile to widen as he handed her the tool and she ducked back under the body of the rusted vehicle.

 

With a boldness that he didn’t possess in his youth, he stepped closer to the car, resting his thigh against the body. Rust chipped off against the texture of his trousers, and his eyes followed the piece of weary metal as it fluttered down to land beside the mechanic.

 

“So…what are you fixing down there…?” Prompto’s attempt at small talk earned him a look that he could feel from beneath the car and through the several tonnes of metal.

 

“You really interested in this ol' gal, Sunshine?”

 

“Yeah,” Prompto replied, absently tapping on the body of the car. “There’s gotta be something interesting under there to keep you doing this all these years, right?”

 

There was a pause, and he couldn’t tell if the silence was deliberate or if the woman’s focus was truly needed on the undercarriage with such intensity, or perhaps Cindy hadn’t heard him at all and he was about to rephrase when she spoke again, “Been working on this gal for what seems like months now, you hear? Disuse makes all the parts rust away and I figure with the sun back and all we'll be seeing more folks ready to get back on the road. Gonna be a while ‘fore everything's back to working order, and this girl ain’t even the worst off of them. All her bits under here rusted out so I’m slowly replacing ‘em but if you thought the regalia was a right pain to get parts for, try findin' metal in a world that’s been dark for far too long.”

 

“I could,” Prompto offered, scratching the back of his neck in a boyish nervous habit that had never left him, not even when there weren’t stars tonight the scourge torn sky.

 

“You what now?” There was a clang from under the vehicle and Prompto winced, not certain if that was flesh or metal bumping against the machinery.

 

“I could go find you some parts?” Prompto reiterated, scratching at his wrist now before ducking down so he could get a glimpse of what Cindy was working on. “Dunno what you guys would think about re-posessing some Imperial technology but I’ve seen some busted up dropships with this size hose and… what’s this? Like a five millimeter pipe? There’s that pit down a few miles out behind Hammerhead where you could make a fire and melt down the metal if you need to—”

 

“Woah, Woah. Slow down there, Sunshine. This ain’t no chocobo race on who can say the most the quickest—” Cindy slid out from under the car and even with oil spots and grease on her face and hair Prompto thought she was the most gorgeous thing he’d ever laid eyes upon. “Don't you have people to go back to? Why would you muck around in the desert scraping for parts when surely you got people back in that city waiting for you?”

 

“Uh—” Prompto did his best impression of a fish, mouth utterly agape as his brain scrambled to find the words to say what he needed to. “Not… not since—”

 

The words caught in his throat and he looked away, but that was answer enough for the peppy mechanic. “Right, then you’re welcome enough to stay here if you’re gonna be pullin’ your own weight. Already know you’re good for varmint execution if you cain't find me parts.”

 

Her smile was almost as bright as the sun had been, that first day when the dusky pinks and blues had rolled over the horizon, yet it didn’t feel nearly as bittersweet. There was no pang of loss beating against his heart, no feeling that their victory wasn’t even worth it. It almost… it almost felt as though he were coming home, back when things were free and good and the shadows of the world didn’t want to choke and cloy til there was nothing left.

 

“I can do both,” The grin on his face felt awkward after so long without it being genuine. “Get rid of monsters and help you get Hammerhead back on the map, once people start exploring it again.”

 

“In that case you might just need two drinks,” Cindy laughed, and for a brief second Prompto doubted that their world had ever had a moment of darkness—but there was no entourage to turn to, and he knew such was not the case.

 

It almost felt as though his face had forgotten how to smile, and muscles he thought he’d never use again ached as he grinned. “Already singing my praises? I am kind of awesome.” His own laugh startled him, unexpected in the wake of desolation.

 

“Now Now, hold your chocobos. A drink ain’t a compliment, don't get ahead of yourself there, Sunshine.”

 


	2. No Time For Regrets

****

Prompto had never been inside the actual interior of Hammerhead Garage. Above the garage sat an apartment, easily overlooked in the photogenic spans of the dessert, and while he'd been in the garage portion, he hasn’t ever given thought as to where Cid and Cindy lived.

 

…He had almost assumed they never slept, always at the beck and call of the prince and his royal entourage. Looking back on the thought, he realised how idiotic it sounded, but even when they rolled up in the dead of night the Sophiar-Aurum duo seemed to be at hand.

 

Perhaps they’d been able to hear them coming miles down the road? The regalia hadn’t ever been the most inconspicuous car.

 

“So, pick your poison, Sunshine,” Cindy’s voice broke him out of his own head, and let him come face-to-face with an entire wall of what he hoped was liquor. Re-purposed jars from all over the continent sat on a wooden shelf, liquids of all colours sitting on it.

 

For the first time in a long while Prompto’s fingers itched for his camera. The right lighting and a photo of this would be near orgasmic.

 

“Uhm…,” He hesitated. Nothing was labeled and it didn’t look like anything was going to taste good. He didn’t expect a full cocktail bar, especially not after their world had been flipped on its axis.

 

“Bathtub moonshine?” The corners of Cindy’s lips quirked upwards in an impish grin, and Prompto’s eyes went wider than a golden saucer.

 

“Y-you--? You make this?”

 

The mechanic’s grin only widened at his astonishment. “Not all of it, no. Paw-Paw an me picked it up when the sky went dark and things was running low. Hunters wanted to forget and we wanted to help.”

 

“Hmm,” Prompto hummed lowly in his throat, surveying the rows of jars. He settled on something of a deep honey-amber that sloshed nicely against the jar. “What’s this?”

 

“Delicious.” Who needed the sun when he could have the smile directed at him in such a way? “You won’t regret it.”

 

“I’m holding you to that, any regret is totally and completely your fault.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave me a review to let me know what you think! Even an "I liked it" lets me feel less like I'm shouting into the void. <3

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a review and let me know what you thought! Even an "I liked it" helps me come back to the computer to type for you guys.


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